Poor sales slow electric car

Sam Hall

Mitsubishi has vowed to maintain its presence in the small electric car market despite a perceived withdrawal of the i-MiEV - the first mass-produced EV to be sold locally.

The manufacturer confirmed to Drive on Wednesday that importation of the i-MiEV had been slowed down to a ‘‘supply and demand’’ basis because of trickling sales.

Introduced domestically in 2010, the i-MiEV has been met with some resistance from prospective buyers because of electric car-related pitfalls, including range anxiety, whereby drivers worry if there is enough charge left to get to their destination.

But the biggest sticking point has always been its high price tag.

The Japanese manufacturer has shifted only 227 units in three years, with sales almost exclusively reserved to businesses and governments wanting a green image.

Disguised in those figures is the fact that 81 of the 95 i-MiEV units moved in 2012 were during the month of December; the result of around 70 Mitsubishi dealers absorbing excess stock from the car maker’s Adelaide headquarters.

Mitsubishi’s customer and brand management vice-president, Paul Unerkov, said the company had changed tack on the way it sold the i-MiEV.

‘‘We are now in the process of selling the remaining vehicles - if there’s a demand out there we can order more but if we can’t sell those we’d be silly to order more,’’ he said.

‘‘A lot of the activity will be now through the dealer network, so it will be through consumer, small businesses and all that sort of stuff.

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‘‘It won’t be the federal government or the major stuff - we’ve exhausted a lot of those avenues already.

‘‘We’ll now sell the cars we’ve got and, if there’s a demand for more, we’ll bring them in.’’

As part of the revision, Unerkov hinted at revised pricing of the existing i-miEVs, which have already been heavily reduced by some dealers from the original retail price of $48,800.

Dealers have begun advertising i-MiEVs for as low as $36,888 on the Drive website.

Despite its uncertain future, Unerkov is adamant the change in approach doesn’t spell the end of the i-MiEV in Australia.

More than anything, he said languishing sales stemmed back to a lack of government subsidies.

‘‘I see that there’s lot of demand in it,’’ Unerkov said.

‘‘I just think that what we have shown is that the price needs to be right, with not as big a premium as what’s been out there.

‘‘We’ve got to try and get these cars within the price band and the market that’s out there. You’re always going to be limited in trying to sell a small car light like that into a price point that doesn’t exist within that segment.

‘‘We probably couldn’t reduce the price much further than that but economies of scale always apply - the more you sell the better it is.’’

Drive understands that Mitsubishi Motors Australia imported the last of its i-MiEV’s mid last year.

Mitsubishi’s apparent exit from the EV category comes after the runout of the Tesla Roadster, an all-electric sports car that ushered in a new brand; a new Tesla luxury car is due by the end of the year.